Review the details of your assessment including the rubric. You will have the ability to submit the assessment once you submit your required self-assessments and engage with your Faculty Subject Matter Expert (SME) in a substantive way about the competency.

Overview

In this Performance Task Assessment, you will consider healthcare quality issues that you observe in practice. You will also locate evidence that relates to the issue from scholarly sources.

Looking Ahead

Over the course of Competencies LC4002A – LC4005A, you will be going through the steps of your Quality Improvement Project which will be submitted in LC4005A. During each Competency, you will complete one or more parts of the final project, and in LC4005A, you will use these parts to create the final project.

This practice experience project has six parts:

1. Analyze available evidence and identify a quality improvement practice problem;
2. Conduct a literature search finding data and evidence-based solutions/interventions to support the importance of the quality improvement practice problem;
3. Identify the quality improvement tools (Fishbone diagram, Pareto Chart, Process Flow Chart, etc.) that will display the data supporting the need for the Quality Improvement Project;
4. Apply the PDSA process to the development of the Quality Improvement Project;
5. Develop an evidence-based plan to address the quality improvement practice problem; and
6. Present the final Quality Improvement Project as a comprehensive paper and quality improvement storyboard.

The practice experience is an active learning process that provides you with the opportunity to apply your nursing knowledge by addressing a quality improvement practice problem. The practice experience is comprised of selected onsite experiences and completion of a Quality Improvement Project with guidance from your subject matter expert. For additional information on the practice experience, follow this link: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/fieldexperience/son/home

The practice experience guide can also be found here: https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/ld.php?content_id=45642029

Instructions

To complete this Assessment, do the following:

• Be sure to adhere to the indicated assignment length.
• Download the Academic Writing Expectations Checklistto review prior to submitting your Assessment.

Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the SME will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.

Rubric

All submissions must follow the conventions of scholarly writing. Properly formatted APA citations and references must be provided where appropriate. Submissions that do not meet these expectations will be returned without scoring.

This Assessment requires submission of one (1) document, a 3–4-page paper. Save this file as: LC4002A_firstinitial_lastname (for example, LC4002A_J_Smith)

When you are ready to upload your completed Assessment, use the Assessment tab on the top navigation menu.

Important Note: As a student taking this Competency, you agree that you may be required to submit your Assessment for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted Assessment materials will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such materials. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the Usage Policy posted on the Turnitin.com site.

Addressing Quality Issues in Healthcare

As a practicing nurse, you probably see falls, CLABSI, CAUTI, MRSA infections, and other such issues arise from time to time. No facility is immune to safety issues, and, as a nurse leader, it is your job to identify these issues and work to address them using evidence.

In this Performance Task Assessment, you will discuss healthcare quality and the pioneers that shaped current practices. You will also consider a practice problem that might be present in your practicum facility and locate evidence surrounding the problem.

In a 3- to 4-page paper, address the following:

• Define healthcare quality in your own words and apply it to the work of one major quality pioneer as listed in the Spath (2018) textbook (Shewhart, Deming, Juran, Ishikawa, Crosby, Feigenbaum, etc.).
• Describe a healthcare practice problem that you have had some experience with as a consumer or as a practitioner in healthcare. The practice problem you identify must be supported by data that is available to you in your practice setting and justifies that a problem exists. This problem will be the basis for your quality improvement practicum project you will complete in the upcoming competencies (LC4003, LC4004 and LC4005). Explain how your definition of healthcare quality might apply to your selected practice problem and your experiences with it.
• Locate 5 sources of scholarly evidence published within the last five years that describe potential solutions or interventions that you can implement as part of your practicum quality improvement plan. A scholarly piece of evidence could be a journal, government agency, white paper, or professional organization. Synthesize the information in the 5 articles. Note that a synthesis of information is not a summary of each source. A synthesis involves critical reading to make connections between sources, compare the similarities and differences, highlight important information, and present new ideas based on your interpretation of the information.

Note: You will use this practice problem in your practicum project that you will work on throughout this area of expertise. Your faculty SME will provide approval for your practicum project topic in the feedback for this Assessment. Be sure to review it and address any comments in subsequent assessments.